The Institute is not only responsible for co-creating Polish historical diplomacy but it is also one of the leading institutions in this field – says Karol Nawrocki, appointed by the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) Board as the new President of the Institute, in an interview with ‘Gazeta Polska’.
Nawrocki, whose candidacy will be voted on in Parliament, said in an interview with “Gazeta Polska” that he intends to present before both chambers his “longstanding social commitment to nurturing Polish history and his professional activities at the IPN (2009-2017) and the Museum of World War II in Gdansk (since April 2017). “All these efforts were united by the desire to serve one purpose – to build a universal historical awareness,” he added.
To the newspaper’s remark that it will not be easy to convince the Civic Platform (PO) and the Left, which – as indicated by “GP” – want to liquidate IPN, he replied that he believes that everyone “who is acquainted with the Institute’s enormous output over the past 20 years will see the undeniable value of this institution”.
“The liquidation of the Institute means consent, for example, to blaming Poles for the outbreak of World War II, abandoning the systematized mission of sharing in the world our national good that was Solidarity and John Paul II, or consent to the participation in the public life of former agents of the totalitarian state,” pointed out Nawrocki.
The historian was also asked by the weekly whether the IPN should be more active in participating in Polish historical policy on the international arena. He replied that the simplest answer was “yes, of course”. He pointed out that for decades Poland had not been able to conduct a sovereign policy of remembrance.
“Happily, this has changed and today the Polish political class attaches importance to national traces of memory. The creation of the IPN and the Presidency of the late Prof. Janusz Kurtyka marked an extremely important caesura in this process. That is why the Institute is not only responsible for co-creating Polish historical diplomacy but is also one of the leading institutions in this field,” – Nawrocki said.
He stipulated that this mission should be carried out in planned symbiosis with the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, the Chancellery of the President, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.